Levels of Youth Crimes: Reasons and Solutions (Essay Sample)

Levels of Youth Crimes: Reasons and Solutions
Jomel Reyes
The University/College
Levels of Youth Crimes: Reasons and Solutions
Youth crime, or sometimes known as “juvenile delinquency” has been a major justice dilemma in many countries. According to Siegel (2011), it happens when an underage commits legal offenses at any level, from less serious (drinking, smoking, etc.) to more serious ones (theft, sexual harassment, murder, etc.). Studies suggest that children’s interaction with family and peers plays a major role as to why it occurs (Hoffmann & Dufur, 2018; Rathinabalan & Naaraayan, 2017). Therefore, as Mwangangi (2019) suggests, lawmakers and social workers should work together in the creation and implementation of policies that would help ensure safe and healthy social relations.
Empirical findings strongly back up that poor social relationship, including improper parenting, greatly contribute to the problem of juvenile delinquency. For instance, Rathinabalan & Naaraayan (2017) conducted a survey that determined significant family factors leading to this social injustice. Results are in the table below.
Table 1
Multivariate analysis of family factors and Juvenile delinquency
Among all examined factors, three turned to be significant enough. These include (1) paternal age of 50 and above, (2) father smoking status, and (3) maternal employment. Reflecting on these findings, one can rationalize that probable causes have something to do with parents showing to their children wrong examples, such as cigarette smoking. The survey results also suggest that youth crime stems from the lack of parental involvement. For instance, working mothers have no sufficient parenting time. Thus, their children are more likely to be vulnerable and exposed to violent online content.
Helping ensure healthy social relations, especially within the family is key to overcoming the problem of juvenile delinquency. Lawmakers should create relevant policies that enforce proper parenting through the use of punitive mea